The Stone, the Sorrow

©️ João Catarino

What is the relationship between hierarchy and heroism?

What is a family?

In The Stone, the Sorrow, family is the object of study, focusing on the hierarchical constructions that make it up and question it, based on a traditionalist mentality in which parenthood assumes a mythological role as an untouchable heroic space. The process of excavation between the public and the private is based on the analogy created between the idea of family and the quarries that exist in Portugal - 2,500 have been counted to date, more than half of which are inactive - as mines in the open-air landscape. They are spaces of human excavation on a surface that meets an unknown terrain, opening wounds in geographical areas of the territory, worn down by abandonment, in an intimacy parallel to that hidden in family constructions, assumed as spaces of imprisonment and liberation ⎯ characteristics that the performing body has taken on in contemporary artistic practices, paying attention to a body full of constant loss. Relating the concepts of reconstruction, myth and romanticism, choreographer Daniel Matos revisits the musical work that marked the history of 20th century dance: "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune", by Claude Debussy, drawing a faune for his parents

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"I observed my country from above. There, my parents multiplied between towns and villages, building families that weren't mine. Big families and small families, single families or in groups, with and without houses. Tables full and pockets completely empty, families with quiet mouths and images that are only familiar on the outside. Looking down, I also saw open wounds in the earth, endless excavations, some cared for and others abandoned, some filled with water and others simply in the open, inspected by iron animals that we decided to call cranes so that the heavy work wouldn't be confused with animal exploitation (my father and mother have always been working animals). The families of the people and the families of the holes have become too many to keep a clear view of, I've lost my parents and their new families (who are perhaps mine or else those parents never belonged to me). I realise that maybe I'm nowhere, that everything is a huge hole in the ground. There is no more country, no more parents, no more family - everything is everything and everything brings the principle of nothingness: to start digging again from the inside."
⎯ Daniel Matos

Daniel Matos

Elia Pangaro, Joana Simões and Lia Vohlgemuth

João Catarino

João Galante aka Coolgate

Daniel Matos

Manuel Abrantes

João Catarino

Bruno Simão

Daniel Matos e João Catarino

Maria Tsukamoto

Joana Flor Duarte

CAB Studios, Vitor Córdon / OPART Studios, O Rumo do Fumo, CPBC, Casa da Dança de Almada, Casa Varela

Lagos Municipality / Centro Cultural de Lagos, Teatro das Figuras, Cine-Teatro de Pombal, Cine-Teatro Louletano

CAMA a.c.

Ana Carocinho

Beatriz Marques Dias

Marina Tabuado

Daniel Matos, Joana Duarte, Manuel Abrantes and Ana Carocinho

Sofia Soromenho, Francisco Pedro, Pedro Barreiro, Rui Horta

O Espaço do Tempo, Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias

Alkantara, CIMPOR